This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
The present apparatus and method complement existing, GPS-based methods for calculating athlete speed by enabling use in environments where GPS signal is unavailable (i.e. indoors). The resulting speed information supports application in athlete monitoring, training, and assessment during game and practice settings.
With the near ubiquity of MEMS inertial measurement unit (IMU) and GPS technologies, there is a growing interest in their application to athlete monitoring and assessment. Several products have recently come to market which exploit these technologies to identify performance metrics (e.g. speed, acceleration, load, etc.) useful for coaches. Two of these products in particular are incorporated into clothing, holding them tightly against the athlete's torso so as to be unobtrusive and removed from parts of the body used in most sports (i.e. hands and feet). These products specifically target outdoor sports, like soccer, rugby, and Australian football, where a fusion of IMU and GPS data can be used to estimate athlete speed. However, for indoor sports like basketball, these sensors-fusion methods cannot be used. Existing GPS-free techniques require subject-specific calibration, a non-torso mounting location, or an array of IMUs to provide accurate speed estimates.
The present disclosure provides a new method for calculating the horizontal speed of an athlete using a single, torso-mounted IMU which does not require subject specific calibration or the use of GPS data. The results from this method are compared to speed determined from video based motion capture (MOCAP). Below we describe the IMU technology used to demonstrate the success of the present method. Following this, we describe our novel algorithm for accurately estimating athlete speed. Next, we present results of a benchmarking study which demonstrate the accuracy of the present method. We then summarize the current state of the art for estimating athlete speed and possible additions/modifications that could be made to our method.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.